SATURDAY: Pirates GM Neal Huntington told Colin Dunlap of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette there "is a process that we have to go through," when asked about Rodriguez's future. "The first is the ability to see if there's a trade partner out there. The second is he'd have to clear waivers. We will work through those two processes first and go from there."
FRIDAY: The Pirates designated infielder Josh Rodriguez for assignment and recalled Pedro Ciriaco from Triple-A, according to the team. Ciriaco appears to be a placeholder for new Pirate Brandon Wood, who was claimed today from the Angels.
Rodriguez, 26, was claimed by the Pirates from the Indians as the first pick in the December Rule 5 draft. If he's not traded or claimed in the next ten days, the Pirates have to offer him back to the Indians for $25K or work out a trade to keep him. If another team picks up Rodriguez, they'll still be subject to the Rule 5 restriction of keeping him in the Majors all year.
Rodriguez received only 14 big league plate appearances this year. Last year at Triple-A he hit .293/.372/.486 in 364 plate appearances, spending most of his time at shortstop. Baseball America ranked him 24th among Pirates prospects, noting that "his upside appears to be as a utility player."
Should have been Cedeno instead. P’s too cheap to swallow his salary.
Not true at all. Cedeno is less than average but still much better than Rodriguez.
“much better”? Seriously? Rodriquez has the ability to be a decent utility player @ SS, 2B & 3B with a much better bat. Cedeno would be tolerable if he had a good glove but his defense has been horrible. His bat is less a threat than half the NL pitchers.
Yes seriously. Unequivocally even. I am not a Cedeno fan or apologist but head to head with Josh Rodriguez I’ll take Cedeno. By adding Wood the Pirate SS situation is still bad at best.
Cedeno isn’t good, but he’s a known asset. Nobody else in the organization has shown they can even perform to Cedeno’s level yet. Would be silly to take that much of a risk.
Risk? They’re building a team to contend in 2-3 years, not 2011. They have pretty good prospects/ML players at every position but SS. D’Arnoud is mentioned but far from a sure thing. Wood is going to get every chance to show he can do the job. Guys like Cedeno are available from most every ML AAA team for cheap.
Nonsense. Contending or not, you don’t fill a position with a career .168 average as your best option. Guys like Rodriguez and Ciriaco have the potential to maybe someday be as good as Ronny Cedeno. That’s their upside.
I like the Wood pickup as much as anybody. Sadly, he has more potential than anybody else in the organization to be an upgrade at the position. By keeping Cedeno, there is no risk at all. If Wood never lives up to that potential – the Pirates have lost nothing. If you get rid of Cedeno, then all you have left is potential and hope that somebody can play better. If they don’t – you’ve just screwed yourself.
I’m saying Cedeno has already failed. A .282 OBP after 1766 MLB ab’s? You’re kidding me. And his glove is no better.
And using a .168 BA after 12 ML ab’s to dismiss Rodriguez? That’s laughable.
If Wood, Rodriguez, Ciriaco and even D’Anaud can’t cut it you can find a Cedeno type hanging out on most any AAA roster for a bag of balls.
This team needs to figure out who their SS for the future is. That includes taking a few chances. For sure, it’s not Cedeno.
…and Josh Rodriguez is the future at SS? You’re basing that on what, exactly? Just a hunch? …or 12 ML ab’s?
I’m not arguing whether or not Ronny Cedeno is a good player or not. Obviously, it’s a position the Pirates need to upgrade. The point you refuse to comprehend is that as bad as he is, he is still the best the Pirates have right now. You don’t get rid of him and say, “Golly gee, I sure hope somebody steps up and suddenly does better.” You gain absolutely nothing from that.
You keep saying you can find a AAA player as good as Cedeno for a bag of balls. The Pirates tried to make a trade for J.J. Hardy and Jason Bartlett in the offseason and failed both times.
2010 Ronny Cedeno: .675 OPS
2010 Jason Bartlett: .675 OPS
2010 J.J. Hardy: .714 OPS
Take a look at some of the newly acquired shortstops just in the NL Central:
2010 Clint Barmes: .656 OPS
2010 Ryan Theriot: .633 OPS
2010 Yuniesky Betancourt: .692 OPS
Clearly, it’s not as easy to just go out and find a similar shortstop as you want to believe.
Yah right, a hunch. My hunch comes from a minor league slash line last year of .297/.378/.484/.862. That’s showing me enough potential to at least give him a full shot.
I don’t know that Josh Rodriguez is the future at SS for the Pirates. He could have been. I do know one thing however – Cedeno is not. I also disagree that Cedeno is “the best the Pirates have right now”. The fact that he’s played the vast amount of innings this year proves it not.
A .297/.378/.484/.862 line at AAA is impressive. Almost as impressive as Cedeno’s .359/.422/.537/.958 line during his last season at AAA in 2007. Should have stuck with the hunch defense.
I see you failed to actually mention who you believe is the best SS the Pirates have. Would love to see a name and numbers to back it up.
You proved my very point. The Cubs didn’t leave him in AAA four years ago – they brought him up & played him at SS. He got his shot. So the fact that he’s now shown no improvement somehow proves that Rodriguez, or any other player for that matter, won’t flourish if given the same chance?
If Cedeno made the same salary as Rodriguez, tell me who would have been DFA’d. Not that the Pirates are the only team to do it but this was a money decision.
You’re arguing that Josh Rodriguez will be a better player than Cedeno based solely on his minor league numbers – which are worse than Cedeno’s minor league numbers. How that makes your point, I have no idea – but congratulations.
When the Cubs brought Ronny Cedeno up in 2005, they didn’t just say – “Hey Neifi Perez kinda sucks…let’s just get rid of him and hope this Cedeno kid pans out.” You know why they didn’t dump their veteran SS? Same reason the Pirates didn’t – it would be ignorant.
Cedeno is making what, $600K more than Rodriguez this year? Yeah, clearly it’s the money and has nothing to do with performance at all.
Why all the snark? Sure are hostile dude. Chill out.
I don’t know if that is true or not about not filling a position with a career .168 average player. Look at the Mariners and Astros infield or the Mets 2b situation.
Cedeno is not an All Star, but his bat, and potential, is still more valuable than Josh Rodriguez.
His “potential”? Sorry but after 7 years & 1915 PA’s his pathetically weak .282 OBP has revealed his potential to me.
You’re comparing liver to chopped liver here, dude.
Tallest midget contest, bro.
i dunno…if Brandon Wood hits sub .200 they wont be able to start him every day….Cedeno is at least a solid defender most of the time
Wood will hit in the NL as an everyday SS. He just needed a change of scenery and hitting coach. Good pick up for whoever gets him.
Cedeno leads the team in sacrifice flys. No one ever looks at the good side of him.
Care to add to the list of positive Cedeno attributes or dies it end with leads team in sac flys?
Cedeno’s gf (wife?) is also really hot
The Pirates will have to give something up if they want to keep Josh Rodriguez and send him to the minors.
They tried to work a deal in Spring and they could not get it done so I don not see it happening now IMO .
Not sure it’s a good trade. Time will tell. Great article.
Cedeno is garbage, shoulda kept Josh Rodriguez
We will see what happens. Great article.